Overview
- Senior U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday, Sept. 10, barring Montgomery County from enforcing its ban on firearms inside the Silver Spring Jewish Center as applied to the synagogue and its members.
- The injunction is temporary and limited to the plaintiffs, so the county’s separate 100-yard buffer zones around places of public assembly remain in force for other houses of worship.
- Chasanow concluded the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their as-applied Second Amendment challenge and on a Free Exercise claim that the indoor ban burdens the congregation’s religiously grounded security practices.
- The New Civil Liberties Alliance sued in late July after County Executive Marc Elrich signed Expedited Bill 23-26 on July 27, a law that broadly barred firearms in many public-assembly locations while exempting law enforcement and hired licensed security.
- The case remains pending and could be appealed, a development that could shape how courts apply the Supreme Court’s post-Bruen test to local 'sensitive places' rules and affect other houses of worship that rely on volunteer security.